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Interview 31
Jack Douglas - from Spanish magazine Popular 1 - March 2006
Source: http://forums.aeroforceone.com/viewtopic.php?t=40830
What are you doing right now ? Which is the last album you have produced ?
The last one was Aerosmith "Honkin' On Bobo" and a new Sony band in Aerosmith's way.
Now I'm working on The New York Dolls album
How was "Honkin' On Bobo" recording ?
It was great !. I loved to work again with Aerosmith. We recorded it at Joe Perry studio in his home.
Jay Messina, that was the first engineer that worked on the first Aerosmith album, collaborated with us on the project. The recording lasted seven months. I spend those seven months with the band at Boston.
How did you feel working with Aerosmith again?
Well, what people don't realize is that we've worked in many projects together through these years: OST, the last live album "A Little South Of Sanity"... And also the remixes of the old albums. So we have worked many times together in these years. And apart from that they are like my best friends.
Before you worked with them in the blues album, the band wasn't in a great creative moment.
I think that's what the company wants them to do. All that shitty pop that they were doing was more and more disgusting. Well, Steven really likes that, the idea of being current and on the radio, while the rest of the members don't matter that, they are more interested in maintaining a credibility, and they reached a point where it was difficult to maintain that credibility.
You worked as engineer in one of the best albums in Rock History: The Who "Who's Next". Tell me about this.
Yes, that was my first work as engineer, I met with Pete Townsend some months ago, He was with his artist girlfriend, called Hilary, I think, and he said: 'This is Jack Douglas, He worked with The Who a century ago and we became him a star'. It was cool he said that.
You might be very young at that time.
I was a kid. I was 21 or 22 years old. In the beginning, they hired me as assistant engineer. It was at the Record Plant Studios. The engineer that had to work on the album, turned out that he wasn't a rock engineer, but a R&B engineer and everybody felt uncomfortable with the situation. The guy hated Rock, he was only interested on R&B, so he didn't want to do the album and they put me in his place. It was my baptism of fire. The first song I recorded was "Won't Get Fooled Again"
Wow!
And I begun to relate with them. We went out together, especially with Keith Moon. He was a brilliant guy.
It was a shame that he was so self-destructive with drugs. He was so incredible and very funny.
Could you tell me some funny stories about Keith Moon?
Yes. Keith used to go to Pete Townsend's room on the ninth floor of the Navarro Hotel, that was beside Central Park. They gave one whole floor to the band, because it was a small one. It was a very luxurious hotel, but small. They knew The Who were going to destroy the rooms, so they gave them the whole floor. Townsend and Keith Moon rooms leaded to Central Park and every time Keith wanted to go to Pete's room, he didn't use the door, he hung of the facade till reach Pete window, knocked on the window, Pete opened the window and let him got inside, like that was something usual !
What happened during the New York Dolls first album recordings ? I read that the band didn't feel well with Todd Rundgren and you helped them to finish the album.
Well, Todd didn't use to come too much time to the studio. I think that the problem was that the first or second
session day, Todd, that was into all that stuff of vocal harmonies and liked to get a poppy sound - which wasn't The New York Dolls sound - said David Johansenn, that certain song was going to sound really well when he added vocal harmonies and David Johansen replied: 'Are you accusing me of not having melody ?. And from that moment things weren't well. I was the street connection in that project, I was the guy that was always at CBGB's and Max's Kansas City, I was a regular to those clubs and knew very well all the scene. I used to go see the Dolls all the time and connected with them, so I knew how they sounded. One thing took it to another and I did the job.
What's your opinion about the New York Dolls ? Did You Like Johnny Thunder playing ?
It was more that his playing, it wasn't a technique question, it was the vibe of playing with that sloveliness, it was all based on the emotion, to sound like the streets, and that was the sound they had, Johnny used to come to my flat on the 76 st., that became a notorious place. In fact, on the book 'Please, Kill Me', it's told that my apartment was a meeting spot for many people on the secene, and even when I was out of the City, there were people that had keys and kept using it. It was too wild. David Johansen and me are still good frinds and we meet often.
How did you meet Aerosmith?
The New York Dolls and Aerosmith had the same management, so when I finished the Dolls album, they were very pleased with the job. Bob Ezrin suggested me to produce Aerosmith though they knew me by my work. I went to Boston to meet the band. We connected quickly, it was authomatic. Steven and me are from the same NY zone. The same happened with Joey Kramer, Joe Perry and Brad, we were influenced by the same bands: The Yardbirds, Cream and classic blues, so the chemistry was perfect. We met pretty well and we keep to have a good relationship.
The first album you did with them was "Get Your Wings". How was Aerosmith life at that time in their career ?
Well, if you had read something about them, you know they had an awesome flat in Boston where they lived together. They were well known at Boston, they were like superstars at a local level. Though their lifestyle was much more humble by that time. Tom Hamilton was married. What is funny is that they have change nothing through these years, Joe
was always shy and bit nerdy, Steven was very extreme, Brad was a musicań genius, Tom an old school guy, you know, a conservative kid from New England...Specially, Joe was very funny to work with him, like a neighbourhood friend ... and he still is. I'll see him next week.
Tell me about "Toys In The Attic", another one of the greatest rock albums. There were so many classic songs: "Walk This Way", "Sweet Emotion", "Big Ten Inch Record", do you remember any special anecdote with any of this songs ?
I can tell you how the "Walk This Way" lyric came up. Whenever we recorded the basic tracks, we have no lyrics, Steven used words without sense or simply hummed sounds, till one melody turned words with sense, but with "Walk This Way", we have nothing and we didn't know what to do with the song, in fact, almost was ruled out.
The studio where we worked, was close to Times Square, and sometimes when we need to write lyrics simply we walked for a while. At that time Times Square was too extreme, there were pimps, junkies, whores, etc...We used to do always the same walk: we went up the 46 St to the 8th Avenue, then we went down Broadway to the 42 St, and from the 42 St we came back to the 8th Avenue and went back to the studio. In that moment, we have crossed paths with enough pimps, whores and junkies to hear dialogues that ended becoming lyrics in the songs. But the day we were walking when we were working on "Walk This Way", was a Sunday evening, we went out to do a walk and there wasn't absolutely nobody on the streets. When we arrived at 42 St we haven't heard none conversations. We saw that it was showing "Young Frankestein" at the theatre, a Mel Brooks movie, and I said: ' Let's go to the theatre, we aren't having ideas, so at least let's have fun for a while'. So we entered the cinema, and there was a scene when the hunchback opens the door and says Gene Wilder: ' Walk this way ', and everybody follows the hunchback walking like him. We all laughed from that ridiculous sentence. After the movie, we came back to the studio, and played the basic track we were recording and I begun to walk as the hunchback and yelling "walk this way, walk this way", then Steven said: ' Wait a moment, that's it ! '. He repeated "walk this way", and wrote the song in that moment and all the text came to him all of a sudden.
We like to say that that was the first rap ever. It was the time when rap was born, and all the Bronx guys were starting to rap, they used "Walk This Way" as rhythmic base
What did you think when Steven and Joe re-recorded "Walk This Way" in the 80s with Rick Rubin and Run DMC ?
I thought it was unavoidable. I was in a restaurant, at the south of France, after they published the new version and the waiter brought me a champaign bottle and said: "This is from the gentlemen, that is on that table" and he was Rick Rubin, that was at the same restaurant
Did you meet Rick Rubin in the south of France?
Yeah, and he said: "This is my gift"
Do you like Rick Rubin as producer ?
Yeah, he is good, very good, and likes to test things, I like that !
Who are your favourite producers?
George Martin, Bob Ezrin, Phil Ramone,...
Do you like any current producers?
I like the White Stripes guy, What's his name ?... Jack White. And I like Peter Gabriel a lot, a lot, alot.
How did you feel when Joe Perry left Aerosmith ?
I think it was a terrible misunderstanding. That kind of things are always caused by women and drugs... I was dissapointed when he left the band and I helped him in his solo album.
How was Steven's reaction when you helped produce Joe's album ?
I don't think Steven mattered that I was producing Joe's album because I produced Aerosmith next album too, and I got them Rick Dufay. There wasn't any Steven reaction. In fact, it was Rick who persuaded Joe to come back to the band. Doing that, let's say that it was like Rick cut his neck, but he did it anyway. In fact, when Aerosmith entered the Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame, Joe said: "I want to thank Rick dufay by doing a career suicide". It was a private joke.
Rick Dufay was an incredible character. Now, that we're at your home, tell me some crazy story about Rick.
Well, at that time Rick was off one's head. rick is still one of my best friends. When Steven was in serious drug problems during this album recording, managers thought: "Maybe we have to sign somebody to keep an eye on Steven and ensure all is fine". And Rick took care of it by stealing all Steven drugs and throwing them in the toilet, even aspirins and medicines that Steven needed to have. He threw them in the toilet!
I assume that nobody in the band had given up drugs and alcohol yet...
No, no, none of us were clean. Things were too far. Once, Steven seemed was going completely mad before going on stage and Rick decided to wrap Steven with insulating tape, to calm him down and to stop him acting crazy. And Steven had to go on stage covered with insulating tape up and down, he looked like an insulating tape mummy.
However, he didn't stop sweating during the show, and at the end his clothes fell down and finished singing in underwear, with a lot of insulating tape around his ankles.
How did you meet John Lennon?
When John came to the studio to record "Imagine", he hired three rooms: one to record the rhythm tracks, one to do the overdubs as string sections, wind sections, guitars or whatever it was, and the third room was prepared to edit tapes that had been recorded in England. I was who edited and transfered all those recordings.
One day I was working in one of the studio rooms and John came and sat next to me, to take a rest in the middle of the recording. I look for courage and told him how many years ago I had gone to Liverpool. In 1965 I arrived at Liverpool the same day The Beatles released "Rubber Soul", and I kicked up a fuss, I escaped from a ship and
was deported to US.
Well, anyway, he raised, looked at me and said me: "Why the f*ck did you go to Liverpool ? Why did you want to go there ? It's a horrible place, everybody in Liverpool wants to go out of there and come to the US, Why did you want to know Liverpool ?". I told him that I wanted to form part of the city musical scene, and he laughed, he remembered the newspapers first pages about me, he laughed because in the day, he asked himself who was that mad guy that had done all that fuss.
From that moment we were friends, he asked me to work with Yoko and I ended producing him as well. I lived with John in L.A. when he separated from Yoko, at that time I was producing Alice Cooper. It was simply friendship and trust.
How did you feel the day john Lennon died?
Well, the next ten years of my life show pretty well how I felt. I was in shock, I was depressed, I harmed myself for some time. It was a terrible blow. It was tough to keep on going, because I thought many times what happened.
The day he died I had to do other sessions after finishing his sessions. Look, I lived at the 76 St with Central Park West and he lived at 72 St with Central Park West, so the most part of the time we worked together, I used to go home in his limousine, he left me close to home, and I continue walking by the park to my flat...However, that day it was suppoused that we shouldn't be working together, "Double Fantasy" was
finished and he was suppoused to be at the Bermudas, but I couldn't stop working, I was full of energy and I wanted to keep working. He didn't told me he was coming back to the studio and I had compromised to do another session with other people. so he told me: "Delay the other session and we can work during the day, until 8 o'clock". So the idea was that at the end of his session, he was going to home and I'd stay at the studio working on the other session and that's what we did. And well, I have thought in that thousands of
times. If it was one of our normal sessions, I'd come home with him on the limo and perhaps, I'd see that maniac and all would be different. Maybe I wouldn't be here, who knows.
Anyway, I have to stop thinking about that, because it makes me sick.
Another awesome musician you worked with, was Michael Schenker. How was working with him ?
Michael Schencker... He played with UFO and even was with Scorpions. Michael is a virtuoso, a brilliant guitar player. Every note he played was perfect. If it wasn't a perfect note, it wasn't on the the disc.
Don't you think it's a shame that he's still an underground musician though he's so brilliant ? Michael Schencker should be a great star today.
Yeah, he's an underground legend and perhaps it's because it was difficult to work with him, because if the work wasn't enough good for him, It was necessary to convince him that every solo was perfect or on the contrary he kept trying to improve it. Probably, he is the most brilliant player in a technique level that exists.
Back to the present, you produced years ago Slash's album "Ain't Life Grand", How was that experience ?
It was great. I love to work with Slash, he is really a cool guy. He's a great guitar player. We made the album at the studio in his house and was funny because Angelina Jolie used to visit us.
I suppose you liked that!
Yeah, thanks to Slash I got an Angelina Jolie kiss.
It's funny, because I was in Angelina's room when she was a girl. I was ready to buy her parents house. It was Jon Voight's home in New York, and I saw her room, but of course at that time she was little Angelina. Even I know Angelina's school. When we met at Slash's home I told her that and she totally cracked up.
Is it true the police arrested Slash during the album sessions at the time he was recording a guitar solo ?
Oh God, it is true, totally true. The Police came and they arrested him in the middle of the session. It was hilarious, because Slash came to me when they hancuffed him. and gave me a card with his mouth.
What's your opinion about Guns'n'Roses?
I think Velvet Revolver are the best Guns'n'Roses since Guns'n'Roses. You know, Axl isn't coming back. We have to get the idea, he isn't coming back.
If he comes, I don't know how people are gonna to react because in the past he had cancelled so many shows that nobody is gonna trust him.
Yeah, he's crazy.
What do you think about "Appetitte For Destruction" production?
It was a very, very good production. I would have done it better but not at that time
You should be a very bad influence for the band
Yeah, that's right (Laughs)
You also worked with Texas Terri a couple of years ago in her album "Your Lips...My Ass !". How did you meet her ?
Oh, everybody in L.A. knows Texas Terri
That's right
But not everybody has worked with her. I'm a producer and She's an Aerosmith fan. In fact I introduce her to Steven, you know, Steven loves Terri. I loved to produce her album, I love Texas Terri, she's very cool
What kind of music do you listen this days?
I listen classical music and I produce Rock'n'Roll. The truth is that I listen all kinds of music. I use to go to the gym where there's always some radio station that airs Classic Rock from the 60's and 70's.
When they have songs from the 70's, I always told to myself " Wow, I produced that ", constantly I listen songs I produced. It's something funny because people around me on the gym, have no idea that I produced all of that. I hate the 80's music. I hate the "hair bands", it's something I never understood. It was a great decade to take a nap. However I like what I'm doing right now.
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